The Responsible Marketing Blog recently blew the whistle on another 'vanity award', the prestigious-sounding U.S. Local Business Association's "Best of" award. This so-called organization makes its living sending out letters of congratulations to naïve business owners, congratulating them on receiving a best-of award and inviting them to claim their plaque (for a handsome charge).

The Better Business Bureau notes that the USLBA lists no phone number, not even in press releases (!!) and the web site is privately registered via Go Daddy, which it finds suspicious. I spoke with a business owner who had been given an award, and he told me that the award was free; the money comes from the purchase of a plaque.

The field of vanity award scams is almost as old a publishing; who hasn't received a pitch for inclusion in some form of a Who's Who, with the chance to buy copies of the finished product for friends and family? In the age of the internet, putting together such scams is even easier and less expensive.

How do you protect yourself from such scams? First, be brutally honest with yourself. Does your work really warrant a Nobell Prize? Are you truly worthy of The U.S. Spurious Association's Man of the Year Award? Do you really think that Stephen Hawking would nominate you to join the ranks of the Time Lords? Get real, people. If you lust for an award plaque, any trophy shop will make one for you, and you can have it read anything you want. If in doubt, look to the BBB.

This reminds me of nothing so much as the episode of the Simpson's in which Homer wins the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.

How often have you found a great price on an item, only to realize that the price is good only if you get the rebate being offered? You're not getting an instantly good price. You have to pay a higher price, go through some hoops, wait a bit, and hope you get your rebate.

WalletPop reader Rick hates the process because he can't seem to get a rebate from Lowe's, and frankly, I feel the same way. Sure, I've gotten lots of rebates over the years. But there are also a few that I've never gotten even though I filled out all the paperwork, sent everything that was asked for, but later told that my documents weren't received and only an original code from the box will be accepted (not the photocopy of it, which is all I now have because I already sent them the original, which they say they didn't get).

Here's Rick's rebate story:

How many times have you made a purchase you didn't really need or couldn't really afford because you were getting something free? Did the item seem like too good of a deal to pass up, or did the freebie sweeten the deal so much that you couldn't walk away?

That's the whole point of sales, freebies, and other marketing gimmicks. People have been studying buying behavior for years, and companies target consumers with sales and specials that they know will speak to their weaknesses. Yes, our brains may be flawed in that regard. We can get tricked into making an ill-advised purchase with these psychological games.

I'm not immune to them, and I don't know many people who are. Good deals make us happy. We love feeling like we got something for free or for an extra special price. What's the key to NOT getting hoodwinked by effective marketing tactics? It's all about self-control. Knowing your budget and sticking to it is, of course, important when you're out shopping. And if you can't stick to your budget when shopping, then you either need to stay home or leave the credit cards at home.

We're in scary financial times, and I don't think that consumers should put themselves in situations in which they might blow their budgets. You better believe that retailers are going to be pulling out all the stops (especially with the upcoming holiday season) to get you to spend your money. Don't fall prey to clever marketing. Be more aware than you ever have been about tactics designed to get you to buy things you don't need.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Tracy Coenen recently wrote about the dangers of affinity fraud -- shameless con-artists who infiltrate religious and cultural groups and take consumers for million dollar rides with lofty promises of high returns in an investment that turns out to be nothing more than a Ponzi scheme.

Tracy wrote that "It's not unusual for a company to say they're paying investors 5% or 10% per month on their investments. . . If you're presented with one of these opportunities that sounds too good to be true, run quickly in the other direction. They are always are too good to be true."
Here's another way to think about that: if someone has an investment method that can earn them returns high enough to pay out 5-10% per month, why do they need your money in the first place? If they have a foolproof method for compounding cash at that rate, banks will be lining up to invest in them. They could take out cash advances on their credit cards -- these brilliant investors could achieve a lower cost of capital with payday loans!

Anyone with a legitimate method for earning outlandish returns wouldn't need to guarantee those high returns to investors -- simple as that.

So I was getting my mail yesterday, and I got one of those offers guaranteeing me two prizes, if all I'd do is saunter into a car dealership in my area and show them my "Notice of Intent to Award Prize."

Now I know that I'm not about to really win a prize, or not in the way that I hope. I know this isn't a good deal. I know it instinctively, without even giving this piece of paper a second glance, just like we all do. But just for laughs, I thought I'd give this a real look. After all, while I'm sure almost everyone reading this wouldn't fall for this sort of thing, some people must, and probably either young and not yet jaded adults, or folks who are feeling a little desperate and thinking, "Maybe my ship has finally come in..."

If these forms didn't occasionally draw someone in, they wouldn't send them.

My prizes, if I would want to go into see my friendly neighborhood Chevrolet dealer, would be two of:

• a 3 day/2 night resort getaway (retail value: $500)
• a $2,500 instant scratch ticket
• a home theater system (retail value: $500)
• a $1,000 instant scratch ticket
• $10,000 cash
  

Ooooh. Now that does sound nice, doesn't it? And since they put in capital letters GUARANTEED WINNER OF AT LEAST TWO (2) PRIZES and even said, "this is NOT a joke, prank or gimmick," I really did feel like this worth studying. I mean, honestly, even if there's a catch, they must be serious on some level.

So I looked at the fine print.

Mortgage expert David Reed invites Walletpop readers to ask him questions about real estate financing. leave your questions in the comment section of this post.

Q: David -- I've been asked by Freepoint to refinance with them. This company claims that I would build up wealth by investing the difference in my equity with them, getting an interest only loan. They state that having equity in your home is not good because someone can sue you and have a claim on your equity. After several years, one would have enough money to pay off their mortgage if they desired. I would like to get advice on this. They said the higher interest would be a tax write off and I would be investing the equity and getting a higher return. Please advise. Thank you. - Helen

A: Helen -- Don't return their phone calls. I don't know who that company is, and while I'm sure they're a fine organization, I'm not comfortable. I see three big problems with this "pitch" which used to be very popular among mortgage loan officers yet seems to be falling by the wayside.

1. Build wealth by investing the different in equity with them
2. Having equity in your home isn't good because someone can sue you
3. The higher interest would be a tax write off

Sheesh. And I thought loan officers like that were out of business or selling cars or something.

Have you been cheated, scammed, or otherwise disappointed by a company? WalletPop wants your real life stories about consumer scams and complaints.

Email us with your story.... Did you receive horrible customer service? Did you pay for a product or service that you didn't receive? Did a company refuse to honor a warranty? Were you scammed out of money?

What we want to hear the facts of your firsthand experience. If we're interested in your story, we may email you to clarify some of the facts or to request your documentation. Don't be offended if we ask you for more information... we just want to make sure that we get the story right. And while we won't necessarily be able to fully investigate your claims or get your money back, we'll at least be able to hold companies accountable for their behavior. And hopefully, they'll even respond with some action to right their wrongs

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

I used to be an English teacher at what Penthouse forum would call "a major mid-Atlantic university." One of the things about teaching English is that it's impossible to escape the high cost of books. Unlike PE teachers, art professors, or the guys who teach underwater basket weaving, English instructors have to assign texts, which means that our students end up having to lay out a lot of dough.

I fought against this by carefully choosing my books. Whenever I assigned a text, I would look at all the available editions and consider the benefits versus the costs of each one. I often used xeroxed copies of stories or placed reserve copies in the library to reduce my students' textbook burden, and prided myself on the relatively cheap cost of supplies for my classes.

One year, attempting to standardize its introductory classes, my department developed an in-house textbook. Initially, using the book was a voluntary choice, but over the years, the department textbook became required for every freshman English class. For a while, this wasn't too much of a problem; the textbook was pretty decent, and I can honestly say that it helped my students. In my final year, however, the department came out with a completely worthless edition of the damned thing. It cost $90, and I was required to assign it in my classes. In my last semester, I decided against using it, which earned me some stink-eye from a few colleagues, but little else. On the other hand, I had already announced my decision to leave teaching.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions said on Thursday that boiler rooms that use high-pressure sales strategies to push junk stocks on unsuspecting consumers are a serious global problem.

Like many other scams, many boiler room operations are small-scale fly by night cold calling rooms that can be set up anywhere in the world and then moved around in a flash.

While regulators fight an uphill battle to take on these crooks -- who generally promote thinly-traded penny stocks with false claims and baseless predictions -- it's fairly easy for investors to protect themselves. Repeat after me: I will never, ever, ever make any investment decision based on a phone call from a stranger or an email from someone I don't know.

No one is going to call you out of the blue to offer you a stock tip that can make you rich -- If it's such a great tip, why do they need your money? Why don't they just keep the shares for themselves?

For a great cinematic representation of fraudulent stock promotions through cold calling, check out Boiler Room.

The New York Times had a very enlightening story this weekend about ticket sales through Ticketmaster. Have you ever tried to order tickets for a concert right after they went on sale, only to find out that event was immediately sold out?

Well there's a very simple explanation for that. Ticket brokers snap up as many tickets as they can, as quickly as possible. Their targets are high-demand events like the Hannah Montana tour.

The brokers then turn around and mark up the tickets and offer them for sale on StubHub, a site owned by eBay. Hannah Montana tickets have a face value of $21 to $66, but are being sold on StubHub for an average of $258 each.

As with any "Top 10" list, my first question is "says who?" As each year winds down, news organizations, websites, and bloggers race to discuss the top scams for the year. Some rely on government statistics, others use their own personal experience, and still others scour the internet for the most popular consumer scams.

So the lists are largely unscientific, but entertaining nonetheless. One of the first lists for 2007 is out, and it includes:

If you can't trust your neighbors in your fancy apartment building, who can you trust?

A young Philadelphia couple was arrested late last week and charged with identity theft, forgery, unlawful use of a computer, and many more charges. Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward Anderton, both in their twenties, had quite a bit of fun on their neighbors' tabs. Their spending reportedly included trips to Paris, London, and Hawaii.

A neighbor of the couple reported the theft of her identity on November 19. She was tipped off by a UPS package from retailer with which she never did business. After a little police investigating at the local UPS store, police were ready to arrest Kirsch and Anderton.

In the couple's $3,000-a-month apartment, police found $17,500 cash, multiple credit cards and driver's licenses, and keys to mailboxes and apartments belonging to other tenants in their apartment building. Most notably, police found a handy book entitled "The Art of Cheating: A Nasty Little Book for Tricky Little Schemers and Their Hapless Victims." The total financial damage is expected to exceed six figures, and multiple victims have already been identified.

An article in today's Columbus Dispatch showed that the *72 scam is alive and evolving, this time in the guise of a caller pretending to be a state highway patrol trooper. The way the scam typically works is something like this: I call you, and spin some tale such as, "Sorry about the wrong number, but my cell phone battery is dying, I'm on the way to the hospital with our sick daughter, could you call my wife for me at *72 555-5555 and tell her to meet me there?" You do so, and get a busy signal. After a few tries, you probably give up.

What you have done by dialing *72 is forward your phone service to my phone at 555-5555. As soon as you dial that number, I have control of your phone service. While you're sitting at home, puzzled why you can't seem to reach anyone by phone, I'm making call after call from my phone, racking up charges that will appear on your bill. Porn lines, gambling lines, third party calls, international calls... you'd be surprised at how fast thousands of dollars of charges can be compiled by these con artists.

What can you do? First, determine if you have call forwarding as part of your cell or land line service. If so, and you never use this option, ask your phone company to discontinue it.

If you must keep it, post a note on your phone reminding you and anyone else that might use the phone to not dial *72 unless you really intend to forward calls to another phone. Also check with your phone provider -- many have systems that allow you to log on to your account via the internet to check your phone usage between billing dates, in case you have reason to suspect something's not right.

Lastly, read your phone service manual to learn how to override active call forwarding.

Unfortunately, greed is no longer the only attribute that con artists prey on -- our desire to help those in distress also makes us vulnerable. But I'm not suggesting you grow callous, just cautious.